Product Liability Lawyer

Child Restraints for Older Children

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHSTA) wants to be extremely careful how they handle regulations about infant restraints in cars, but what about older children? Babies have special restraints designed for their safety as adults do, but children who are at the age where they are too big for infant restraints and too small for adult restraints are missing out. Built-in child safety seats would make it safer for older children to ride in vehicles, but currently, no effort is being put forth to make this a safety standard. Typically, a product such as this would target children who are between the ages of 4 and 8, weighing at least 50 pounds. Many accidents lead to child injury because the seatbelts they were using were not conducive to safety for a child of that age.

Commonly used are "booster seats" which is currently the standard for older child car safety. In a recent study, only 20-38 percent of children in the vulnerable age (4-8) use these booster seats. This is probably because of two factors. The first being that there is no clear message about the standards for older child car safety and secondly, the NHTSA campaigns tend to shy away from the topic. The agency actually doesn't even require booster seat testing for older children and even more shocking than this, they do not require vehicle manufacturers to build vehicles that can accommodate older child safety restraints. While many measures are currently being taken to improve overall passenger safety in vehicles, the number of injuries to young children has actually increased in recent years.

Because it is not required, U.S. auto makers do not manufacture their vehicles with older child safety in mind. They also do not typically test their vehicles for safety or advise car owners on the potential risks. It seems now that it is up to individual automobile manufacturers to develop better safety mechanisms to outfit their cars with so that they are safe for children. If your child was injured in a car accident and you believe that their injuries could have been lessened or prevented by adequate child restraints, then you should definitely seek legal help. A skilled product liability attorney can help you with your case and advocate on your behalf should you become a client.

How Arnold & Itkin Can Help

At Arnold & Itkin, we understand that there are inadequate regulations currently in place for the safety of 4-8 year old car passengers. We have a successful history of going up against product manufacturers of child products and obtaining settlements for our injured clients. A product liability attorney from our firm will be able to evaluate your claim and determine what type of help you are entitled to. Should you become one of our clients, you can rest assured that we will fight aggressively on your behalf to ensure that you get the compensation you deserve.

If you think you have a product liability claim, contact a product liability lawyer from our firm today.